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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The people in Guam seem to be enjoying themselves most of the time, enjoying the abundance of sunshine, the heat (some prefer the heat), the friendliness among neighbors, the frequent festivals, and of course the food. After a few days of staying here in Guam, I am quite used to the heat already, I embraced the heat and humidity because there was not point fighting against it, you will sweat anyhow. Arriving at the Agat Mango Festival with that mentality was proven wise! The American flag I saw flying around was a good reminder that I was actually in the land of the USA because with the humidity and large amount of Japanese tourists in town all the time, it was hard to think otherwise.

Various types of mangoes were displayed for visitors to sample. I was quite overwhelmed by the different types of mangoes that exists. Certainly learned a few things while my polo shirt was soaking in my sweating thanks to the fierce sun!

Of course what I do miss about Guam was the scenery, especially how many of our lunches and dinners were along the beach with stunning view!

For lunch, aside from our usual red rice and breadfruit ...

... of course we get to try various mangoes and melons overlooking the sea!

It was hard not to notice the many food bloggers around and learn from them, especially on how to take pictures. Here was one from Korea and she spent quite a lot of time taking pictures of this fresh sweet coconut!

As mentioned, aside from eating and sun bathing, there are other sort of activities in Guam as well. Flying tourist plane I covered, sky diving I will cover later, how about some Shooting Range? IT turns out shooting range is quite popular in Guam, you will find one almost every 500 meters or so, mostly indoors though. The one we went to called the Western Frontier Village, not surprisingly run by Japanese (reading off its Japanese leaflet right now and they only have Japanese leaflet!)

We each shot 18 rounds from different guns, the 0.38, 0.44, 0.45 Caliber and of course ...

... oh yes, the Shotgun!

So how was my score? Sigh ... below average of course!

Another interesting spot to visit is the Lina'La Chamorro Cultural Park which is scheduled to open by the end of June if I recall correctly. Inside this park you can experience a sense of the Chamorro cultures several hundred years ago. Not only do they have replica of ancient structures / houses, they also have an actual family of Chamorro heritage to "station" here, dress in tradition outfit to show visitors the daily lives of a true Chamorro family back then.

One of the most useful things I learned from this visit was how the smoke from burning coconut shell can scare of mosquito! I was literally standing beside the fire because my legs were dessert buffet to those mosquito!

The cooking demonstration was interesting but the resulting food was not that appetizing.

Driving to the south of the island, you will find Talofofo Falls which ... isn't that special if you ask me except for the fact that this was the location for the famous Yokoi Cave where Sgt Yokoi has been hiding for 28 years until 1972 when he was discovered and without the knowledge that the war was actually over.

The actually cave was so small that it is not for visit so the decision is all yours if you want to pay a visit here (for a fee of course). If you are more of a nature person, that don't worry, you still have the Talofofo Falls. You will have to take a short cable car ride down to the fall by the way.

It was quite thoughtful of them to have paper fan in each of the cable car because it was freaking hot and they should really improve on the ventilation!

So is the fall magnificent? Well, it is the biggest fall in Guam so in relative terms it is I guess.

After a long day tour, it was time for dinner! Having a nice dinner by the beach overlooking the sunset was nice!

Candlelight dinner overlooking the sunset was nice once again! (Great view from theOutrigger Hotelby the way!)

However, out of the many meals I had in Guam, the following ad hoc stop for seafood at Core BBQ and Seafood Restaurant was one of my favorites! It was the whole atmosphere and service of the owner that made the world of differences.

The Japanese owner, Sako-San, greeted us with a great big smile and showed us the daily specials! We ordered all of them!

We sneaked into the BBQ area for a few shots of out food! Lobsters and Oysters!!

The oyster Rockefeller was 3 for US12! Not bad at all! Not the best I had before but the cook / chef had heart when cooking our food. For something this simple, he took the effort to plate it nicely, cook it with care. Perhaps it was because we were taking pictures of every single step, the bottom line was that I enjoyed it very much although I was sweating while eating!

Although not the freshest prawns out there, the seasoning was just right!

Lobsters was a bit overcooked but the buttery sauce was superb! I almost drank the whole thing! The simple plating with the flower made it not so simple!

1 comment:

I grew up in Guam and particularly in Agat. I was so glad to have stumbled on your blog. The beautiful pictures made me miss the island a lot and all your food shots just increased my cravings. I'm glad you were able to enjoy the island.